Method and device for customizing a mail history

ABSTRACT

A method for customizing a mail history including generating a mail tree composed of all received mails belonging to a same topic; receiving a user input indicating a mail to be replied to and a mail to be referred to which are selected by the user, the mail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to being located on different branches of the mail tree; acquiring a first plurality of mails on a first path from a root mail of the mail tree to a child mail of the mail to be replied to, and a second plurality of mails on a second path from the root mail to a child mail of the mail to be referred to; and merging the first plurality of mails and the second plurality of mails to generate a merging result as the mail history.

This application is a continuation application of co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/259,415, filed on Oct. 28, 2008, which is herebyincorporated herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and device for customizing amail history, and more particularly, relates to a method and device forcustomizing a mail history so that when a user replies to a currentmail, the user can refer to a mail on a different branch of a same mailtree or a mail on a different mail tree.

RELATED ART

An e-mail system plays an important role in an enterprise by connectingall employees, and almost all information flows in the mail system.Therefore, using the e-mail system efficiently will greatly increase theworking efficiency of the enterprise and thus bring higher revenue tothe enterprise.

Currently, many e-mail systems, such as the Lotus Notes® Mail System,can support organizing and managing related mails in a mail tree view,e.g., a thread in the Lotus Notes® Mail System. When a mail client ofthis kind of mail system receives mails from other users, for thosemails belonging to a same topic which are generated by replying orforwarding operations, the mail client can generate a mail tree composedof the mails based on information reflecting heritage relationshipsamong the mails and display these mails in a tree view, since theinformation has been added into the mails at the time of the replying orforwarding operations. In the mail tree, the mail initiating the topicis a root mail, i.e., a root node, and the other mails respectivelybecome intermediate nodes or leaf nodes according to the heritagerelationships.

When a topic is discussed by using a mail system, a case in which a userdirectly replies to a last received mail, whereas another user repliesto an intermediate mail in which the user is interested instead of alast mail, often occurs. This results in multiple branches beinggenerated in the mail tree. FIG. 1 schematically shows an exemplary mailtree generated in a mail system supporting a mail tree view, whichcomprises multiple branches.

Generally, options, such as “Reply”, “Reply to all”, “Reply withhistory”, “Reply to all with history”, and the like, are provided in amail client. When a user browses a mail and wants to reply to the mail,the user can select one of the above-mentioned options. For example, ifthe user replies to the current mail by selecting the option of “Replywith history”, a mail history of the current mail will be automaticallyattached into a new mail as the reply, and the mail history includescontents of a history mail on a branch where the current mail islocated.

However, there is not an efficient way that enables a user to directlyrefer to contents of a mail on another branch when replying to a mail ona branch in conventional mail systems, that is, when the user wants todirectly refer to the mail on another branch when replying to thecurrent mail. Since conventional mail systems cannot provide thisfunctionality, the user often solves this problem by adopting twoapproaches as follows. In a first approach, the user finds the mail onanother branch, copies the contents to which the user wants to refer andpastes the contents into a new mail. However, in this approach, the userhas to find the mail first, filter all undesired contents from all thehistory of the mail, and then copy and paste the desired contents, whichrequires much time and is inconvenient.

In a second approach, the user first replies to the current mail andtells the receiver that “I'll forward you some other discussions aboutthe contents, please check mails”. Then, the user selects mails to whichthe user wants to refer one by one and forwards them to the receiver. Inthis approach, however, the user has to find all of the mails to whichthe wants to refer, copy the receiver's address as the forwardingaddress into respective mails one by one, and then forward the mails tothe receiver. To this extent, such a process also needs much time and istroublesome (especially when there are many mails to be referred to).Moreover, such a two-step-operation approach may bring inconvenience tothe receiver and break the integrity of opinions the user wants toexpress.

In addition, conventional mail systems do not provide an efficient waythat enables the user to directly refer to other mail belonging to adifferent topic, i.e., a mail on a mail tree different from the mailtree to which the current mail belongs) when replying to the currentmail.

Therefore, there is a need for a method and a device that canautomatically generate a mail history of a new mail as a reply accordingto a selection of a user, so that when replying to a current mail, theuser can directly refer to a mail on a different branch of a same mailtree or a mail on a different mail tree.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method and device for customizing amail history, which can automatically merge history information of mailson different branches of a same mail tree according to a selection of auser, so as to generate history information of a new mail as a reply.The present invention also provides a method for customizing a mailhistory, which can automatically merge history information of mails ondifferent mail trees according to a selection of a user, so as togenerate history information of a new mail.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided amethod for customizing a mail history, the method comprising: generatinga mail tree composed of all received mails belonging to a same topic;receiving a user input indicating a mail to be replied to and a mail tobe referred to which are selected by the user, the mail to be replied toand the mail to be referred to being located on different branches ofthe mail tree; acquiring a first plurality of mails on a first path froma root mail of the mail tree to a child mail of the mail to be repliedto, and a second plurality of mails on a second path from the root mailto a child mail of the mail to be referred to; and merging the firstplurality of mails and the second plurality of mails to generate amerging result as the mail history.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda device for customizing a mail history, the device comprising:generating means for generating a mail tree composed of all receivedmails belonging to a same topic; receiving means for receiving a userinput indicating a mail to be replied to and a mail to be referred towhich are selected by the user, the mail to be replied to and the mailto be referred to being located on different branches of the mail tree;acquiring means for acquiring a first plurality of mails on a first pathfrom a root mail of the mail tree to a child mail of the mail to bereplied to, and a second plurality of mails on a second path from theroot mail to a child mail of the mail to be referred to; and mergingmeans for merging the first plurality of mails and the second pluralityof mails to generate a merging result as the mail history.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method for customizing a mail history, the method comprising:generating a first mail tree composed of all received mails belonging toa first topic, and generating a second mail tree composed of allreceived mails belonging to a second topic; receiving a user inputindicating a mail to be replied to which is selected by the user in thefirst mail tree and a mail to be referred to which is selected by theuser in the second mail tree; acquiring a first plurality of mails on afirst path from a root mail of the first mail tree to a child mail ofthe mail to be replied to in the first mail tree, and acquiring a secondplurality of mails on a second path from a root mail of the second mailtree to a child mail of the mail to be referred to in the second mailtree; merging the first plurality of mails and the second plurality ofmails to generate a merging result as the mail history.

With the above methods and device, when replying to a current mail, auser can conveniently refer to information of a mail on a differentbranch of a same mail tree or information of a mail on a different mailtree, thereby improving the efficiency of the mail system. In addition,by customizing the mail history as described above, the presentinvention can also provide the user with a new view including thecustomized mail history so that the user can clearly and comprehensivelygrasp a complete discussion history of a topic.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 schematically shows an exemplary mail tree generated in a mailsystem supporting a mail tree view.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a device for customizing a mailhistory according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a method for customizing a mail historyaccording to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a device for customizing a mailhistory according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a method for customizing a mail historyaccording to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 6 a and 6 b schematically show mails received by a mail clientsupporting a tree view and a generated mail tree, respectively.

FIGS. 7 a and 7 b show a selection of a user with respect to the mailsshown in FIG. 6 and a mail history obtained by using the device and themethod for customizing a mail history according to the second embodimentof the present invention, respectively.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a method for customizing a mail historyaccording to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 9 a and 9 b show a selection of a user with respect to the mailsshown in FIG. 6 and a mail history obtained by using the device and themethod for customizing a mail history according to the third embodimentof the present invention, respectively.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a method for customizing a mail historyaccording to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As described above, a mail client of a mail system which supports a mailtree view organizes and manages received mails by using a mail tree. Forexample, the mail tree shown in FIG. 1 can represent the followingexemplary mail exchange process. At first, the mail client receives amail 101 initiating a topic, which corresponds to a root node (i.e., aroot mail) 101 of the mail tree. Then, the mail client receives a mail102 which is a reply of another user to the mail 101 and corresponds toa node 102. Next, the mail client receives a mail 103 and a mail 112which are replies of other users to the mail 102 and correspond to anode 103 and a node 112, respectively. The mail 103 and the mail 112 areon different branches, because they are replies made to the same mail102 by different users. In the process of discussing the topic, therespective users may reply to or forward different mails, thus the mailtree grows downwards from the root mail (the root node) to have multiplebranches. When replying to or forwarding a mail, the mail clientautomatically add information reflecting a heritage relationship betweena new generated mail and its parent mail (corresponding to its parentnode in the mail tree) into the generated new mail, and the mail systemcan generate the mail tree based on the heritage information. Theprocess for the mail system to generate the mail tree is well known inthe art, and the description thereof is omitted for simplicity.

The mail system can determine an accurate path of a mail in the mailtree based on the heritage information included in the mail. This makesit possible to traverse the mail tree in a specific order and filterredundant information, for example, prevent contents of the root mail orother mails from appearing in the customized mail history more thanonce.

Hereinafter, a device for customizing a mail history according to afirst embodiment of the present invention will be described in detailwith reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a device forcustomizing a mail history according to a first embodiment of thepresent invention. Here, for the ease of understanding the presentinvention, a mail client of a mail system is used as an example of thedevice; however, the present invention is not limited to this, but canuse any device which can customize a mail history as describedhereinafter. In addition, the descriptions of well-known components andfunctions are omitted here, so as to avoid obscuring the presentinvention with unnecessary details; however, it is to be appreciatedthat this does not means that such well-known components and functionsdo not exist.

The first embodiment of the present invention is directed to a casewhere a user wants to refer to contents of a mail on a different branchof a same mail tree when replying to a current mail. Hereinafter, forthe convenience of description, the present invention is described usingan example of referring to a mail on another branch. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this, but can be extended to a caseof referring to mails on many other branches, and such an extension isalso applicable to other embodiments described later.

As shown in FIG. 2, a mail client 200 includes a generating means 201, areceiving means 202, an acquiring means 203, a merging means 204, and aninserting means 205.

When the user activates the mail client 200, the mail client 200receives mails from other users in a well-known way, stores these mailsin a memory (not shown), and generates a mail tree according to heritagerelationships among these mails. Specifically, the generating means 201of the mail client 200 generates the mail tree for all mails belongingto a same topic based on the heritage information included in thereceived mails, and arranges these mails and shows them to the user, forexample, in a manner of changing the indentation distance graduallyaccording to the heritage relationships among these mails. As describedabove, since the method for generating the mail tree is well known inthe art, the description of the process for generating the mail tree isomitted here for simplicity.

Assume that the user is browsing a mail and wants to reply to the mail.Because the user finds that contents in another mail are useful, he alsowants to refer to the contents of the other mails in a new mail as thereply. Therefore, the user selects the mail to be replied to and themail to be referred to sequentially. For example, when the user clickson the option of “Reply to all with history” on the interface of thecurrent mail (i.e., the user selects the current mail), the mail client200 may generate a user interface which is used to compose the new mailand has an operation button that can be used by the user to select themail to be referred to, and then the user can select the mail to whichhe wants to refer by the operation button. Of course, the presentinvention is not limited to this, but can adopt any way that enables theuser to input the mail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to,which is also applicable to other embodiments described later. It is tobe appreciated that although, in the above description, the user selectsthe mail to be replied to first and then selects the mail to be referredto, this selection order is not limiting, and the user may also selectthe mail to be referred to first and then select the mail to be repliedto, which is also applicable to other embodiments described later.

The receiving means 202 receives the user input indicating the mail tobe replied to and the mail to be referred to which are selected by theuser, and transmits to the acquiring means 203 information indicatingthe mail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to. The receivingmeans 202 may be, for example, a software module integrated in the mailclient, and can be activated to receive the user input when the userselects to reply to the mail.

The acquiring means 203 reads the mail tree generated by the generatingmeans 201, acquires mails on a path (hereinafter referred to as “mainpath”) from a root mail to the mail to be replied to in the mail tree,and acquires mails on a path (hereinafter referred to as “includedpath”) from the root mail to the mail to be referred to.

In particular, the acquiring means 203 includes a locating means 2031and a searching means 2032. The locating means 2031 locates the mail tobe replied to and the mail to be referred to in the mail tree based onthe heritage information included in the mail to be replied to and themail to be referred to, and acquires their branch information, thebranch information including information reflecting heritagerelationships between the mails and their parent mails and child mails,or information reflecting positions of the mails in the mail tree, suchas information indicating the parent mails (i.e., parent nodes) and thechild mails (i.e., child nodes) of the mails and so on.

The searching means 2032 traverses the main path and the included pathsbased on the mail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to whichare located by the locating means 2031, so as to acquire mails on thepaths and the branch information thereof. In particular, first, thesearching means 2032 traverses the main path from the mail to be repliedto until the root mail in a direction towards the root mail (root node)of the mail tree, so as to acquire all mails on the main path and thebranch information thereof. Then, the searching means 2032 traverses theincluded path from the mail to be referred to until the root mail in adirection towards the root mail, so as to acquire all mails on theincluded path and the branch information thereof.

The merging means 204 is used to merge the mails on the main path andthe included path to generate a mail history of the new mail as thereply. Specifically, the merging means 204 determines the relationshipsamong the mails first based on the branch information of the respectivemails acquired by the searching means 2032. For example, with respect tothe mails on a same path, the merging means 204 determines that theypossess heritage relationships (corresponding to parent nodes and childnodes in the mail tree), whereas with respect to the mails on differentpaths, the merging means 204 determines that they possess parallelrelationships (corresponding to brother nodes in the mail tree). Then,the merging means 204 arranges all of the acquired mails on the twopaths based on the determined relationships among the respective mails,so as to merge them into the mail history of the new mail. For example,the merging means 204 can arrange all mails on a same path in an orderfrom a child node (i.e., child mail) to the root node (i.e., root mail)so as to indicate the temporal relationships among the mails, andindicates the heritage relationships among the mails in a manner ofchanging indentation distances of the mails gradually. Furthermore,since the mails on the main path and the mails on the included pathpossess the parallel relationships, the merging means 204 may arrangethe mails on the main path and the mails on the included path inparallel at a same indentation distance to indicate the parallelrelationships. Thereby, the merging means 204 generates the mail historyof the new mail which is customized by the user by arranging the mailson the main path and the mails on the included path together, and mayshow to the user the relationships among the mails, such as the heritagerelationships among the mails on a same branch or the parallelrelationships among the mails on different branches, etc., in a specificarranging manner.

It is to be appreciated that the manner in which the merging means 204merges the mails is not limited to the above-mentioned manner, instead,any manner that can clearly show the relationships among these mails maybe used. For example, the merging means 204 can arrange the mails in anorder from the root mail to a child mail, and/or indicate the heritagerelationships and the parallel relationships among these mails by addinga specific sign.

The inserting means 205 is used to insert the merging result generatedby the merging means 204 as the mail history into the new mail anddisplay the mail history to the user. As such, the user is provided anew view including the customized mail history and can clearly grasp therelated discussing history.

It should be notes that although, in the above description, the devicefor customizing a mail history according to the first embodiment of theinvention is described as including a plurality of means, each of whichperforms a corresponding function, and thereby the history informationof the mail to be replied to and the history information of the mail tobe referred to are merged into the history information of the new mail,the present invention is not limited to this. In fact, it may beappreciated by those skilled in the art that some or all of theplurality of means can be combined to form one or more new means whichcan perform correspondingly combined functions. Alternatively, one ormore of the plurality of means may be further divided into severalsub-means which can perform the correspondingly divided functions. Thisis also applicable to other embodiments described later.

Hereinafter, a method for customizing a mail history performed by theabove mail client will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the method for customizing a mail historyaccording to the first embodiment of the present invention.

When activated, the mail client 200 receives mails transmitted by otherusers to the present user in a well known way, and stores these mails ina memory (not shown). As shown in FIG. 3, in step S301, the generatingmeans 201 of the mail client 200 generates a mail tree for mailsbelonging to a same topic based on the heritage information in therespective received mails, and displays these mails to the user in theform of a tree view. The heritage information is information which isadded into the received mails by other mail clients when they transmitthese mails and reflects replying or forwarding relationships, which iswell known in the art. As described above, since the method for thegenerating means 201 to generate the mail tree is well known, thedescription thereof is omitted here for simplicity.

When the user is browsing a mail in the mail client, as described above,the user selects a mail to be replied to and a mail to be referred to,for example, by clicking on the option of “Reply to all with history” onthe interface of the current mail, and selecting the mail to be referredto via a generated user interface which is used to compose the new mailand has an operation button that can be used by the user to select themail to be referred to. At the same time, in step S302, the receivingmeans 202 receives the user input indicating the mail to be replied toand the mail to be referred to which are selected by the user, and then,the receiving means 202 transmits to the acquiring means 203 informationindicating the mail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to.

Next, in step S303, the locating means 2031 of the acquiring means 203reads the mail tree generated in the generating means 201, locates themail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to in the mail tree,and acquires branch information of the mails. The branch informationincludes, for example, information reflecting heritage relationshipsbetween the mails and their parent mails (corresponding to parent nodesin the mail tree), or information reflecting positions of the mails inthe mail tree, such as information indicating the parent mails (i.e.,parent nodes) and the child mails (i.e., child nodes) of the mails, etc.Then, the locating means 2031 provides the information to the searchingmeans 2032.

Then, in step S304, the searching means 2032 traverses the main path andthe included path based on the mail to be replied to and the mail to bereferred to which are located by the locating means 2031, so as toacquire mails on the paths. In particular, the searching means 2032traverses the main path from the mail to be replied to until the rootmail in a direction towards the root mail (or the root node) of the mailtree, so as to acquire all mails on the main path and the branchinformation thereof. Then, the searching means 2032 traverses theincluded path from the mail to be referred to until the root mail in adirection towards the root mail, so as to acquire all mails on theincluded path and the branch information thereof. Subsequently, thesearching means 2032 provides the acquired mails and the branchinformation thereof to the merging means 204 of the mail client 200.

Next, in step S305, the merging means 204 receives the acquiring resultfrom the searching means 2032, and determines the relationships amongthese mails based on the branch information of the respective mails. Forexample, as described above, the mails on a same path can be determinedas possessing heritage relationships, whereas the mails on two differentpaths can be determined as possessing parallel relationships.

Then, in step S306, the merging means 204 merges all of the acquiredmails on the main path and the included paths, based on the determinedrelationships among the respective mails (including the relationshipsamong the mails on a same path and the relationships among the mails ondifferent paths). For example, the merging means 204 may arrange allmails on a same path in an order from a child mail to the root mail soas to indicate the temporal relationships among the mails, indicate theheritage relationships among the mails in a manner of changingindentation distances of the mails gradually, and indicate the parallelrelationships among mails on two different paths (for example, the mailto be replied to and the mail to be referred to) by using a sameindentation distance. Thereby, the merging means 204 arranges the mailson main path and the mails on included paths together in a specificorder and manner, so as to form a mail history of a new mail andmeanwhile show the relationships among these mails to the user clearly.As described above, it is to be appreciated that the present inventionis not limited to the above-mentioned specific arranging manner, but canadopt any arranging manner which can show the mails and theirrelationships clearly.

Next, in step S307, the inserting means 205 inserts the merging resultgenerated by the merging means 204 as the mail history into the new mailand displays this mail history to the user.

As described above, it is to be appreciated that, although it isdescribed in the above description that the mails on the main path andone included path are emerged into the mail history of the new mail, thepresent invention is not limited to this, and those skilled in the artcan easily extend the technical solutions of the present embodiment toemerge the mails on the main path and a plurality of included paths intothe mail history of the new mail.

Furthermore, in the device and the method for customizing a mail historyaccording to the first embodiment of the present invention, when a userselects the mail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to, thesearching means 2032 traverses the main path from the root mail of themail tree to the mail to be replied to and the included path from theroot mail to the mail to be referred to, so as to acquire the mails onthe two paths, and then the merging means 204 merges these mails to formthe mail history of the new mail. That is, the merged mails do notinclude child mails (corresponding to child nodes in the mail tree) ofthe mail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this. In a variation of the firstembodiment, the child mails of the mail to be replied to and the mail tobe referred to may also be included in the mail history. In particular,after the locating means 2031 locates the mail to be replied to and themail to be referred to in the mail tree, the searching means 2032 maytraverse one or more paths from the root mail to one or more child mailsof the mail to be replied to (i.e., one or more child nodes of the nodecorresponding to the mail to be replied to in the mail tree) to acquireall mails on the paths and the branch information thereof, and thentraverse one or more paths from the root mail to one or more child mailsof the mail to be referred to (i.e., one or more child nodes of the nodecorresponding to the mail to be referred to) to acquire all mails on thepaths and the branch information thereof. Then, the merging means 204may merge these mails in the same way as described above to generate thecustomized mail history.

For example, referring to FIG. 1, it is assumed that the mail selectedby the user to be replied to corresponds to a node 104 in the mail tree,and the mail selected by the user to be referred to corresponds to anode 113. Then, in the first embodiment, the mails on the main path fromthe root mail to the mail to be replied to are mail nodes 101, 102, 103and 104, the mails on the included path from the root mail to the mailto be referred to are mail nodes 101, 102, 112 and 113, and the mergingmeans 204 merges these mails into the history of the new mail as thereply. In the variation of the first embodiment, the mails on the pathsfrom the root mail to the child mails of the mail to be replied to canbe, for example, mails 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 and 108, themails on the paths from the root mail to the child mails of the mail tobe referred to can be, for example, mails 101, 102, 112, 113, 114 and115, and the merging means 204 can merge these mails into the history ofthe new mail. Of course, in the variation of the first embodiment, themerged child mails of the mail to be replied to and the mail to bereferred to may also be one or more of all child mails thereof.

With the device and the method for customizing a mail history accordingto the first embodiment of the present invention, when replying to amail, the user may conveniently refer to contents of a mail on adifferent branch of the same mail tree, so as to customize a mailhistory of a new mail as the reply. However, since the merged mails ondifferent paths include identical mails, for example, the merged mailson the main path and the included path both include at least the rootmail, these identical mails will be repeatedly displayed in thecustomized mail history, which causes redundant information to appear inthe merging result. In order to solve this problem, an improvement ismade to the first embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, a device for customizing a mail history according to asecond embodiment of the present invention will be described in detailwith reference to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a device forcustomizing a mail history according to a second embodiment of thepresent invention. Likewise, a mail client is used as an example of thedevice, but the device is not limited to a mail client

A mail client 400 shown in FIG. 4 includes a generating means 401, areceiving means 402, an acquiring means 403, a merging means 404 and aninserting means 405. The generating means 401, the receiving means 402and the inserting means 405 are substantially the same as the generatingmeans 201, the receiving means 202 and the inserting means 205 of themail client 200 according to the first embodiment of the presentinvention shown in FIG. 2, thus the detailed description of the samecomponents is omitted hereinafter.

As described with regard to the first embodiment, the generating means401 generates a mail tree based on mails received by the mail client400, wherein all mails belonging to a same topic constitutes one mailtree. The receiving means 402 receives a user input indicating a mail tobe replied to and a mail to be referred to, and transmits it to theacquiring means 403, wherein the mail to be replied to and the mail tobe referred to are located on different branches of the mail tree.

The acquiring means 403 reads the generated mail tree, and acquiresmails on a main path from a root mail of the mail tree to the mail to bereplied to and mails on an included path from the root mail to the mailto be referred to. In particular, the acquiring means 403 includes alocating means 4031, a searching means 4032, and a comparing means 4033.

The locating means 4031 is substantially the same as the locating means2031 according to the first embodiment, and it reads the generated mailtree from the generating means 401, locates in the mail tree the mail tobe replied to and the mail to be referred to which are selected by theuser, and acquires branch information of these mails. The branchinformation includes, for example, information reflecting heritagerelationships between the mails and their parent mails, or informationreflecting positions of the mails in the mail tree, such as informationindicating the parent mails and the child mails of the mails and so on.

The searching means 4032 is substantially the same as the searchingmeans 2032 according to the first embodiment, and it traverses the mainpath and the included path based on the branch information of the mailto be replied to and the mail to be referred to which is acquired by thelocating means 4031, so as to acquire mails on the paths and the branchinformation thereof.

The comparing means 4033 compares the mails on the main path and themails on the included path which are acquired by the searching means4032 to find identical mails in these mails, and deletes the identicalmails from the acquired mails on the included path to prevent them fromappearing in the final merging result repeatedly. Since the method forcomparing the mails to determine whether they are identical and themethod for comparing the mails on different paths of the mail tree tofind identical mails therein are well known in the art, the detaildescriptions thereof are omitted here for conciseness.

Next, in a similar way to that in the first embodiment of the presentinvention, the merging means 404 merges the acquired mails on the mainpath and the mails on the included path which are subjected to the abovedeleting processing into a mail history of a new mail. Then, theinserting means 405 inserts the generated mail history into the newmail, and displays it to the user.

Referring to FIG. 1 again, it is assumed that the mail to be replied toand the mail to be referred to which are selected by the userrespectively correspond to a node 104 and a node 113 in the mail tree,then the searching means 4032 according to the second embodiment of thepresent invention acquires mails 101, 102, 103 and 104 on the main pathand mails 101, 102, 112 and 113 on the included path. The comparingmeans 4033 compares the mails on the two paths, finds identical mails101 and 102, and deletes the mails 101 and 102 from the mails on theincluded path. Then, the merging means 404 merges the mails 101, 102,103 and 104 on the main path and the mails 112 and 113 on the includedpath which are subjected to the deleting processing into the mailhistory of the new mail. The repetitious mails 101 and 102 are preventedfrom appearing in the merging result repeatedly, since they have beendeleted.

Hereinafter, a method performed by the device for customizing a mailhistory according to the second embodiment of the present invention willbe described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG. 5 is a flowchartshowing the method for customizing a mail history according to thesecond embodiment of the present invention. Steps S501, S502, S503, S504and S508 of the method are respectively the same as the steps S301,S302, S303, S304 and S307 of the method according to the firstembodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 3, and the detaileddescription of the same steps is omitted here for simplicity.

In step S501, the generating means 401 generates a mail tree based onmails which belong to a same topic and are received by the mail client400. In step S502, the receiving means 402 receives a user inputindicating a mail to be replied to and a mail to be referred to whichare selected by the user. In step S503, the locating means 4031 locatesthe mail to be replied to and the mails to be referred to in the mailtree, and acquires branch information thereof. In step S504, thesearching means 4032 traverses a main path from a root mail to the mailto be replied to and an included path from the root mail to the mail tobe referred to, so as to acquire mails on the two paths and the branchinformation thereof, and then provides the acquiring result to thecomparing means 4033.

In step S505, the comparing means 4033 compares the mails on the mainpath and the mails on the included path which are acquired by thesearching means 4032, so as to find identical mails in these mails, anddeletes the identical mails from the acquired mails on the includedpath.

Next, in step S506, the merging means 404 receives the mails on the mainpath, the mails on the included path which are subjected to the deletingprocessing, and the branch information thereof from the comparing means4033, and determines relationships among the mails, such as heritagerelationships, parallel relationships or the like, based on the branchinformation.

Then, in step S507, the merging means 404 merges the mails on the mainpath and the mails on the included path which are subjected to thedeleting processing into a mail history of a new mail based on thedetermined relationships, and provides the merging result to theinserting means 405. Here, the merging means 404 may merge the mails ina same way as that in the first embodiment.

Finally, in step S508, the inserting means 405 inserts the mergingresult generated by the merging means 404 as the mail history into thenew mail, and displays the mail history to the user.

Likewise, it is to be appreciated that, in a variation of the secondembodiment, the main path can be selected as one or more paths from theroot mail of the mail tree to one or more child mails of the mail to bereplied to, and the included path can be selected as one or more pathsfrom the root mail to one or more child mails of the mail to be referredto. At this time, the merging result (i.e., the customized mail history)will include one or more child mails of the mail to be replied to andthe mail to be referred to.

With the device and the method for customizing a mail history accordingto the second embodiment of the present invention, when replying to amail, the user may refer to contents of a mail on another branch tocustomize the mail history, and meanwhile, redundant information can beprevented from being generated in the customized mail history.

Hereinafter, an example of customizing a mail history using the deviceand the method according to the second embodiment of the presentinvention will be described.

FIG. 6 schematically shows mails received by a mail client supporting amail tree view and a generated mail tree, wherein FIG. 6( a) shows themails received by the mail client, and FIG. 6( b) shows the mail treegenerated for the mails, which has a plurality of branches.

FIG. 7 shows a selection of a user with respect to the mails shown inFIG. 6 and a mail history obtained by using the device and the methodfor customizing a mail history according to the second embodiment of thepresent invention. In FIG. 7( a), the nodes surrounded by a circlerepresent a mail 701 to be replied to and a mail 702 to be referred towhich are selected by a user John, respectively. FIG. 7( b) shows thecustomized mail history. As shown in FIG. 7( b), in this example, a mainpath is a path from the mail 701 to a root mail 700, and an includedpath is a path from the mail 702 to the root mail 700. Since the mainpath and the included path are partly overlapped, after the comparingand deleting processing of the comparing means, the mails on the mainpath include all mails on the path from the mail 701 to the root mail700, and the mails on the included path only include the mail 702. Inthis example, the merging means arranges the mails on the main path inan order from a child mail to the root mail and in a manner ofincreasing indentation distances of the mails gradually to indicate theheritage relationships among them, and arranges the mail 701 and themail 702 located on two branches respectively at a same indentationdistance to indicate the parallel relationship between them, so that therelationships among the respective mails in the customized mail historyare clearly shown to the user.

In the first and second embodiments of the present invention, the usermanually selects the mail to be replied to and the mail to be referredto, and the mail client automatically generates the mail history of thenew mail as the reply to based on the selection. When the user wants torefer to a plurality of mails when the user replies to a mail, the usercan select the mails one by one, and then the mail client combineshistory information of the mail to be replied to and history informationof the mails to be referred to, so as to form a mail history of a newmail. However, when the user wants to refer to mails on all the otherbranches of the mail tree, although the user can still select the mailsto be referred to one by one, this is quite troublesome andtime-consuming. Therefore, a device and a method for the customizing amail history according to a third embodiment of the present invention isproposed.

The device for customizing a mail history according to the thirdembodiment of the present invention is the same in structure as thedevice for customizing a mail history according to the second embodimentof the present invention shown in FIG. 4, and the difference betweenthem only lies in that functions performed by respective means aredifferent. The block diagram of the device is not shown repeatedly forconciseness.

Hereinafter, a method for customizing a mail history according to thethird embodiment of the present invention will be described withreference to FIG. 4 and FIG. 8. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the methodfor customizing a mail history according to the third embodiment of thepresent invention.

In the third embodiment of the present invention, for example, a usermay select to reply to a current mail and include all mails in the mailtree as a mail history of a new mail by clicking on the option of“Include all mails as mail history and reply to all” provided on theinterface of the current mail.

As shown in FIG. 8, in step S801, the generating means 401 generates amail tree for mails belonging to a same topic which are received by themail client, and as is well known in the art, each of the mails includesinformation reflecting relationships between the mail and other mails,for example, heritage relationships. Then, in step S802, the userselects a mail to be replied to and selects to include all of the mailsin the mail tree as the mail history of the new mail as described above,and the receiving means 402 receives the selection of the user.

In step S503, the locating means 4031 locates the mail to be replied toin the mail tree, traverses the mail tree to locate respective leafmails (i.e., leaf nodes) in the mail tree, and acquires branchinformation of the mails. For example, the locating means may firsttraverse from the mail to be replied to to child mails thereof andsubsequently returns to the mail to be replied to, then traverse fromthe mail to its brother mails and their child mails, and finallytraverse to the root mail, thereby traversing the whole tree. It shouldbe noted that the above-mentioned traversing order is merely exemplary,and in fact, the present invention can adopt any traversing order inwhich the whole tree can be traversed.

Then, in step S804, the searching means 4032 traverses paths from theroot mail to the respective leaf mails to acquire all mails on thesepaths and branch information of these mails.

In step S805, the comparing means 4033 of the acquiring means 403compares the mails on the respective paths so as to find identical mailstherein, and deletes one of two groups of the identical mails. Forexample, the comparing means 4033 may sequentially compare therespective branches in an order from a rightmost branch to a leftmostbranch of the mail tree so as to determine the identical mails therein,and then delete the identical mails from the acquired mails on a rightbranch of two branches participating in the comparison.

Next, the merging means 404 determines relationships among the mails onthe respective paths which are subjected to the above deletingprocessing based on the branch information of the mails which isacquired by the searching means 4032 in step S806, and merges the mailson the respective paths which are provided from the comparing means 4033into the mail history of the new mail based on the relationships in stepS807. For example, the merging means 404 can arrange the mails on a samepath in an order from a child mail to a root mail and in a manner ofincreasing indentation distances thereof gradually, and arranges themails on different paths in parallel, as shown in FIG. 7( b). However,other arranging manners may also be adopted.

Finally, in step S808, the inserting means 405 inserts the result of themerging as the mail history into the new mail, and displays the mailhistory to the user.

FIG. 9 shows a selection of a user with respect to the mails shown inFIG. 6 and a mail history obtained by using the device and the methodfor customizing a mail history according to the third embodiment of thepresent invention, wherein, FIG. 9( a) represents that the user Johnselects to include all mails in the mail tree as the mail history, andFIG. 9( b) shows an obtained mail history.

Cases where a mail to be replied to and a mail to be referred to arelocated on different branches of a same mail tree have been describedhereinbefore. However, the present invention can also be applied to acase where a mail to be replied to and a mail to be referred to arelocated on different mail trees, i.e., a case where a mail to be repliedto and a mail to be referred to do not belong to a same topic.Hereinafter, a device and a method for customizing a mail historyaccording to a fourth embodiment of the present invention will bedescribed.

The device for customizing a mail history according to the fourthembodiment of the present invention is the same in structure as thedevice according to the first embodiment of the present invention shownin FIG. 2, and the difference between them merely lies in that functionsperformed by respective means are different. The block diagram of thedevice is not shown repeatedly for conciseness.

Hereinafter, the method for customizing a mail history according to thefourth embodiment of the present invention will be described withreference to FIG. 2 and FIG. 10. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing themethod for customizing a mail history according to the fourth embodimentof the present invention, wherein steps S1001, S1002, S1003 and S1007are similar to the steps of S301, S302, S303 and S307 of the methodaccording to the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.3, and thus the detailed description of these steps is omitted.

As shown in FIG. 10, in step S1001, the generating means 201 generates amail tree for mails received by the mail client, wherein the mailsbelonging to a same topic are located on a same mail tree, whereas themails belonging to different topics are located on different mail trees.In step S1002, the receiving means 202 receives a user input indicatinga mail to be replied to in a first mail tree and a mail to be referredto in a second mail tree which are selected by the user. In step S1003,the locating means 2031 of the acquiring means 203 locates the mail tobe replied to in the first mail tree, locates the mail to be referred toin the second mail tree, and acquires branch information of the mails.In step S1004, the searching means 2032 traverses a main path from aroot mail of the first mail tree to the mail to be replied to and anincluded path from a root mail of the second mail tree to the mail to bereferred to, so as to acquire all mails on the paths and the branchinformation thereof.

Next, in step S1005, the merging means 204 determines relationshipsamong the mails based on the branch information acquired by thesearching means 2032. At this time, since the mail to be replied to andthe mail to be referred to are located on different mail trees, themerging means 204 determines that the mails on the main path and themails on the included path respectively possess heritage relationships,and determines that the relationship between the mails on the main pathand the mails on the included path is a parallel relationship. Then, instep S1006, the merging means 204 merges the acquired mails on the mainpath and the included path in a similar way to that described abovebased on the determined relationships.

In step S1007, the inserting means 205 inserts the merging result as amail history into a new mail.

The devices and methods for customizing a mail history according to thepresent invention are described above. With the devices and methods,when replying to a mail, a user may directly refer to a mail on anotherbranch of a same mail tree or a mail on a different mail tree (i.e., amail belonging to a different topic), without the necessity ofperforming copying and pasting operations or troublesome forwardingoperations as in the conventional art, thereby improving the efficiencyof a mail system.

Alternative embodiments of the present invention may further comprisecomputer readable cods on a computer readable medium. The computerreadable medium may include a computer readable recording medium. Thecomputer readable recording medium is any data storage apparatus thatcan store data readable by a computer system later. Examples of thecomputer readable recording medium include a magnetic storage medium,such as a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access memory (RAM), aCD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disk and a hard disk, and an opticalstorage apparatus, such as a CD (compact disk) and a DVD (digitalversatile disk). The computer readable recording medium may also bedistributed in network-coupled computer systems so that the computerreadable codes are stored and executed in a distributed way.Furthermore, programmers in the art to which the present inventionpertains can easily construe a functional program, a code and a codesegment for implementing the present invention.

Although some exemplary embodiments of the present invention have beenshown and described, it is to be appreciated by those skilled in the artthat various changes in form and detail may be made to these exemplaryembodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventionas defined in the following claims and the equivalents thereof.

1. A method for customizing a mail history, comprising: generating amail tree composed of all received mails belonging to a same topic;receiving a user input indicating a mail to be replied to and a mail tobe referred to which are selected by the user, the mail to be replied toand the mail to be referred to being located on different branches ofthe mail tree; acquiring a first plurality of mails on a first path froma root mail of the mail tree to a child mail of the mail to be repliedto, and a second plurality of mails on a second path from the root mailto a child mail of the mail to be referred to; and merging the firstplurality of mails and the second plurality of mails to generate amerging result as the mail history.
 2. The method as claimed in claim 1,wherein all mails belonging to the same topic are received by a mailclient.
 3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the acquiringfurther comprises: locating the mail to be replied to and the mail to bereferred to in the mail tree; traversing a part of the first pathbetween the mail to be replied to and the root mail, so as to acquireall mails between the mail to be replied to and the root mail as thefirst plurality of mails; and traversing a part of the second pathbetween the mail to be referred to and the root mail, so as to acquireall mails between the mail to be referred to and the root mail as thesecond plurality of mails.
 4. The method as claimed in claim 1, whereinthe acquiring further comprises: locating the mail to be replied to andthe mail to be referred to in the mail tree; traversing a part of thefirst path between the mail to be replied to and the root mail, so as toacquire all mails between the mail to be replied to and the root mail asthe first plurality of mails; traversing a part of the second pathbetween the mail to be referred to and the root mail, so as to acquireall mails between the mail to be referred to and the root mail as athird plurality of mails; comparing the first plurality of mails and thethird plurality of mails to find identical mails therein; and deletingthe identical mails from the third plurality of mails to obtain thesecond plurality of mails.
 5. The method as claimed in claim 1, whereinthe acquiring further comprises: locating the mail to be replied to andthe mail to be referred to in the mail tree; traversing the first pathto acquire all mails thereon as the first plurality of mails; andtraversing the second path to acquire all mails thereon as the secondplurality of mails.
 6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein theacquiring further comprises: locating the mail to be replied to and themail to be referred to in the mail tree; traversing the first path toacquire all mails thereon as the first plurality of mails; traversingthe second path to acquire all mails thereon as a third plurality ofmails; comparing the first plurality of mails and the third plurality ofmails to find identical mails therein; and deleting the identical mailsfrom the third plurality of mails to obtain the second plurality ofmails.
 7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the merging furthercomprises: arranging respective mails in the first plurality of mailsand respective mails in the second plurality of mails in an order from achild mail to the root mail and in a manner of changing indentationdistances thereof gradually; and arranging the mail to be replied to andthe mail to be referred to in parallel, so as to merge the mails.
 8. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: inserting the mergingresult as the mail history into a new mail as a reply.
 9. A device forcustomizing a mail history, comprising: generating means for generatinga mail tree composed of all received mails belonging to a same topic;receiving means for receiving a user input indicating a mail to bereplied to and a mail to be referred to which are selected by the user,the mail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to being locatedon different branches of the mail tree; acquiring means for acquiring afirst plurality of mails on a first path from a root mail of the mailtree to a child mail of the mail to be replied to, and a secondplurality of mails on a second path from the root mail to a child mailof the mail to be referred to; and merging means for merging the firstplurality of mails and the second plurality of mails to generate amerging result as the mail history.
 10. The device as claimed in claim9, wherein the device is a mail client, and the all mails belonging tothe same topic are received by the mail client.
 11. The device asclaimed in claim 9, wherein the acquiring means further comprises:locating means for locating the mail to be replied to and the mail to bereferred to in the mail tree; and searching means for traversing a partof the first path between the mail to be replied to and the root mail,so as to acquire all mails between the mail to be replied to and theroot mail as the first plurality of mails, and for traversing a part ofthe second path between the mail to be referred to and the root mail, soas to acquire all mails between the mail to be referred to and the rootmail as the second plurality of mails.
 12. The device as claimed inclaim 9, wherein the acquiring means further comprises: locating meansfor locating the mail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to inthe mail tree; searching means for traversing a part of the first pathbetween the mail to be replied to and the root mail, so as to acquireall mails between the mail to be replied to and the root mail as thefirst plurality of mails, and for traversing a part of the second pathbetween the mail to be referred to and the root mail, so as to acquireall mails between the mail to be referred to and the root mail as athird plurality of mails; and comparing means for comparing the firstplurality of mails and the third plurality of mails to find identicalmails therein, and for deleting the identical mails from the thirdplurality of mails to obtain the second plurality of mails.
 13. Thedevice as claimed in claim 9, wherein the acquiring means furthercomprises: locating means for locating the mail to be replied to and themail to be referred to in the mail tree; and searching means fortraversing the first path to acquire all mails thereon as the firstplurality of mails, and for traversing the second path to acquire allmails thereon as the second plurality of mails.
 14. The device asclaimed in claim 9, wherein the acquiring means further comprises:locating means for locating the mail to be replied to and the mail to bereferred to in the mail tree; searching means for traversing the firstpath to acquire all mails thereon as the first plurality of mails, andfor traversing the second path to acquire all mails thereon as a thirdplurality of mails; and comparing means for comparing the firstplurality of mails and the third plurality of mails to find identicalmails therein, and for deleting the identical mails from the thirdplurality of mails to obtain the second plurality of mails.
 15. Thedevice as claimed in claim 9, wherein the merging means respectivelyarranges respective mails in the first plurality of mails and respectivemails in the second plurality of mails in an order from a child mail tothe root mail and in a manner of changing indentation distances thereofgradually, and arranges the mail to be replied to and the mail to bereferred to in parallel, so as to merge the mails.
 16. The device asclaimed in claim 9, further comprising: inserting means for insertingthe merging result as the mail history into a new mail as a reply.
 17. Amethod for customizing a mail history, comprising: generating a firstmail tree composed of all received mails belonging to a first topic, andgenerating a second mail tree composed of all received mails belongingto a second topic; receiving a user input indicating a mail to bereplied to which is selected by the user in the first mail tree and amail to be referred to which is selected by the user in the second mailtree; acquiring a first plurality of mails on a first path from a rootmail of the first mail tree to a child mail of the mail to be replied toin the first mail tree, and acquiring a second plurality of mails on asecond path from a root mail of the second mail tree to a child mail ofthe mail to be referred to in the second mail tree; and merging thefirst plurality of mails and the second plurality of mails to generate amerging result as the mail history.
 18. The method as claimed in claim17, wherein all mails belonging to the first topic and all mailsbelonging to the second topic are received by a mail client.
 19. Themethod as claimed in claim 17, further comprising: inserting the mergingresult as the mail history into a new mail as a reply.